Safest LAMP encrypt method

Question

Hello,

what is PHP's safest encrypt/decrypt method, in use with MySQL - to store let's say passwords?

Of course, not for portal purposes - hashing is the safest option there.

I want to do little password (domain/mysql/ftp...) storage for our whole team online, so we could log in and check to passwords, but I don't want really to endanger our clients' bussinesses. Hash can't be used for obvious reasons - we need to get the passwords in readable form back, after logging in - (Doesn't really make sense to run rainbow tables every time :D).

Any idea?

Edit: so far, there was just mysql-level AES. Do you think anything would be better/safer or do you have any experience with 3rd party open source code?

Answer 1

I would say MD5 is a good choice since you could use MD5() at MySQL level as well. Then again, you would save your passwords plain in the DB.

base64 < MD5 < SHA1

Answer 2

If you want encrypt and decrypt then you may wish to consider MySQL's built-in AES encryption. This allows you to use a salt (even a random salt for each item) and then store the encrypted data as a binary blob. You can then fetch the salt or use a stored one, and decrypt the data.

There's a good tutorial on AES encyrption/decryption here: http://techpad.co.uk/content.php?sid=82

Answer 3

@Adam, I must agree that safer way is to use mysql AES crypt and to save key in PHP. That way, if hacker somehow get DB he won't be able to open without key in PHP.

You can play with key (ex, crypt PHP code/playing with eval()) so hacker would be confused if he would get DB & PHP code together...